Monday, March 20, 2017

Stormy pattern returns later this week

Welcome to Monday and to SPRING!! After a rather uneventful winter with record low snowfall for parts of Kansas, we move on to the next season and start preparing the next weather change.

Most of us had an early taste of summer yesterday. Crazy to see 90° weather on the last day of winter and in March, but then again, everything has been out of whack lately. There were a handful of records tied or broken, and we might see a few of them tied again today.

Much cooler tomorrow (Tuesday) -
Temperatures are going to be coming back down in a big way for Tuesday/Wednesday. It's not bitterly cold or Arctic air (that's over with now), but we should fall below normal for highs. Most of us will see 50s through midweek.

Stormy pattern later this week -
So many requests for rain and as we head into the second half of the week, the pattern FINALLY changes. Chances for showers and thunderstorms will be back as early as Thursday. While the setup could bring a few severe storms to Kansas, it looks more likely for severe storms south of Kansas into Oklahoma and Texas. Once the storms forms in western Kansas Thursday evening, they will quickly race east into the night. And that's a problem - the storms don't stick around long enough to produce any substantial moisture. The forecast models are in pretty good agreement that amounts will be on the lower end.

Bottom line is that the first storm system coming later this week isn't likely to produce much more than some .25-.5" amounts. There will be at least 2 more systems coming, and hopefully, we will get rain. Drought conditions continue to expand across many areas of the state.